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Topic: Newbbes bees need help (Read 1078 times)

Here’s the situation. I installed my bees in early April in my TBH. Since then they have drawn out 13 bars of cone. First 8 had brood in them ( I think) in a sporadic pattern with honey at the top of the bars. The other bars were honey stores. I checked them two week after install and again one week later and I thought they were fine, building cone like crazy and capping cells of what I though were brood. (never found the queen) Now in hind sight I don’t think I ever saw an egg. I check again today and did not see the queen so I looked for signs of her, Eggs, larva etc. I found larva, no eggs and it looked like they were filling the brood chamber with honey. And there was a lot of empty cells on most of the frames in the brood chamber. I did not find any queen cells. Am I blind or are my bees queen less and not making a new one? This is my first and only hive so a shack off or swapping frames from another hive is not an option. Should I re-queen or let the girls work it out on their own? Any info would be appreciated

My typical disclaimer is that I don't know anything so if anyone says anything different then, go with them before me, but here's my thoughts on it even though I know nothing.

obviously you had a queen not to long ago, and that would be after april because you have larva. your queen could of left certainly, or, because you are not experienced you just may not be good at spotting your queen.(is she marked btw?) queens typically should be replaced super quick I believe if something happens to them, but if the larva/laying pattern is spotty, that does mean trouble, and it could even mean it isn't a queen laying the eggs, the bees will I believe in certain situations actually lay eggs themselves....and they do it in spotty ways....the queen sort of keeps order in the hive. My suggestion, from someone who knows totally nothing keep in mind, would be to look more carefully first off. A lot of time newer beeks like myself have the impulse to rush, but we really do not have to, so much, I do not think. get back in there and really seek to understand what is going on. what size TBH do you have, how many bars, and how deep/etc. was the brood capped on the first cells, and were there drone cells, or was it worker cells? bees typically place honey stores at the top of drawn out comb. you should know the difference between capped honey cells and capped brood cells. a healthy laying pattern will have a medium brown cap, and there will be periodic cells with uncapped larva,eggs or necter in them even. after being layed, between 5-6 daysish, the cells are capped. they then go into a prepupal stage where they spin a cocoon/etc.

But I've found there are always some uncapped larva that are easy to find. They are white and curled in the cell and fill the cell at least 1/2 way up.Eggs can be hard to see without good light or good eyes but if you are continually seeing uncapped larva you have a queen, unless it is all drones from a laying worker. Drones cell tend to be bumpy when capped sticking up from the comb. Worker cells then to be flat when capped. or more like tile with just minor indents in between cells like tile with a grout line. Honey and brood can usually be identified separately because of location and on going color. When first capped brood can be lightish like honey (only to us newbies) but older capped brood area is much darker. You should have areas of more than one color as the queen lays everyday so each day some brood will be hatching some will be getting capped and some will be old enough to provide dark cappings. Look for variation in the capped color. And the previous poster is correct that honey is usually in the top but I have found honey sporadically all over as my hive isn't building faster than my queen can lay even though they have now built her close to 25 medium bars worth of comb.

Since I am obsessed with my new hobby I happen to have a picture that shows all 3 capping in my hive so you can see the slight differences I was talking about.